Wednesday, February 9, 2011

[Updated December 30, 2010]: The Court of Appeals has denied the NSA's Petition for Rehearing on December 29, 2010. The deadline for filing a petition for certorari with the U.S. Supreme Court is 90 days. After that, the decision becomes final unless overturned by the Supreme Court.

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Oh boy, I hope this goes Supreme... can't wait to broadcast this one..

The fact that a court is being asked to uphold a 1966 ruling that should never have been heard in the first place is classic..

Judge: Baha'i believers can call themselves Baha'i

November 23, 2010 9:11 PM

A federal court in Chicago has ruled a group of self-proclaimed orthodox Baha'i believers can keep calling themselves Baha'i despite a 1966 court decision that stopped an offshoot organization from using the Baha'I name.

Today, the federal 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the 1966 decision does not apply to a different offshoot known as the Orthodox Baha'i Faith.

Though the judges criticized the ruling from more than four decades ago as wrongfully trying to resolve a question of religious authority, they determined it was a moot point since the original defendants led a denomination that no longer exists.

Tuesday's ruling sidestepped any questions about whether a religious organization can trademark its name or icons.

North American Baha'is have been based in Chicago ever since believers came to the U.S. about 90 years ago.

Adherents of the Orthodox Baha'i Faith--about 50 strong in the U.S.--believe the mainstream Baha'i faith -- about 5 million strong in the world -- has strayed from the religion's original teachings.

Every religion has been riven by struggles over authority and authenticity.

Buddhism began when a maverick Hindu prince inspired disciples to embrace asceticism. Judaism has sprouted branches from ultra-orthodox to ultra-liberal, even Jews for Jesus. Christianity went through numerous profound splits, including the Protestant Reformation sparked in the 16th Century by Martin Luther in Germany and the 19th Century Mormon movement led by Joseph Smith in the U.S.

Now the Baha'i Faith, the organization representing the most recent sect to spring from Islam, is struggling to defend its identity in federal court in Chicago, where North American Baha'is have been based ever since believers came to the U.S. about 90 years ago. They contend that a tiny band of believers known as the Orthodox Baha'i Faith can't call themselves Baha'i or use one of its key symbols without violating trademark law or a previous court ruling more than 40 years ago.

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In the hands of the federal 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, the case could set a precedent for settling religious schisms, doctrinal disputes and claims to truth.

You see, since from the beginning this has been a religious dispute couched in other terms, no court at any level has had jurisdictional authority to even hear it let alone rule on it but they have anyway with full knowledge that they are overstepping their bounds in a profound way. After that the pandora's box is open and any religiously based argument could be heard by any court in the land. Imagine the field day some groups would have if they knew the court could actually hear their "cases". Just start with the very smallest town and the very pettiest of religious laws someone thinks is being "transgressed" and let the idea spread to something like Roe v. Wade, or teaching evolution or "creationism" in school, or homosexuality.

This case could make that change in a way that nobody is or will be terribly concerned about since it only appears to deal with some religion most Americans are woefully ignorant of and indeed this ignorance could prove to be much to the detriment of our free society. If the Haifa based Baha'is gain a victory in this case it would become illegal for anyone of any other Baha'i sect to speak, teach, publish, gather, put up webpages or use any of the terminology of the Baha'i Faith.

The bottom line is this, that the stage is being set for a dissolving of the line between matters of state and matters of faith by the very system in place to assure that doesn't happen and has been for some few years now and it's only one more appeal away from the final step necessary to make it set legal precedent for the entire U.S.